Poll the forms of life and you will find it in a ridiculously small
minority. The fishes know it not, and they get along quite nicely. The
ants and the bees, who far outnumber man, sting their fathers to death
as a matter of course, and are given to the atrocious mutilation of
nine-tenths of the offspring committed to their charge, yet where
shall we find communities more universally respected? Take the
cuckoo again- is there any bird which we like better?"
I saw he was running off from his own reminiscences and tried to
bring him back to them, but it was no use.
"What a fool," he said, "a man is to remember anything that happened
more than a week ago unless it was pleasant, or unless he wants to
make some use of it.
"Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during
their own lifetime. A man at five-and-thirty should no more regret not
having had a happier childhood than he should regret not having been
born a prince of the blood. He might be happier if he had been more
fortunate in childhood, but, for aught he knows, if he had,
something else might have happened which might have killed him long
ago. If I had to be born again I would be born at Battersby of the
same father and mother as before, and I would not alter anything
that has ever happened to me.
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